North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un, on Wednesday denied Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s claim that Pyongyang plans to send up to 50,000 more troops to Russia to fight for its ally.

Kim Yo Jong, a top official in North Korea’s ruling party, said in a statement published by state media KCNA that Zelenskiy’s estimate was “groundless” and “a self-staged incident.”

Zelenskiy made his claim in a post on X this month, and he called on South Korea to provide ​support for his country’s air defences.

Kim Yo Jong said responsibility for the outbreak and for the prolongation of the Ukraine crisis lay entirely with the United States and the West.

North Korea sent an estimated 14,000 soldiers to Russia’s Kursk Region in 2024, under a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty agreed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s June 2024 visit to Pyongyang.

Pyongyang has also supplied Russia with millions of artillery and mortar rounds, ballistic missiles, long-range artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, according to Ukrainian and independent assessments.

Kim Yo Jong also said the United States’ “hostile policy” towards North Korea hasn’t changed despite President Donald Trump’s order to substantially reduce U.S. participation in joint military drills with South Korea.

She said that while the relationship between the leaders of the United States and North Korea was “truly great,” Washington was still carrying out the drills with Seoul and threatening the national security of Pyongyang.

She added that she was unaware of any recent communications between the two countries’ leaders. Trump said on Monday he had received a response from Kim after reducing the scale of the U.S. drills with Seoul and calling North Korea “unthreatening and respectful.”

(Reporting by Heejin Kim and Brenda Goh; Editing by Hugh Lawson)